Soul
Café
Spiritual
Renewal
God! Refresh and
gladden my spirit. Purify my heart. Illumine my powers. I lay
all my affairs in Thy hand. Thou art my Guide and my Refuge. I will
no longer be sorrowful and grieved; I will be a happy and joyful being. O
God! I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass
me. I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life. O God! Thou art more friend to me than
I am to myself. I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
"Earth teach me to forget myself as melted snow forgets its
life. Earth teach me resignation as the leaves which die in the fall. Earth
teach me courage as the tree which stands all alone. Earth teach me
regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring. "
-- William Alexander
"O friends! It behoveth you to refresh and revive your souls
through the gracious favors which in this Divine, this soul-stirring Springtime
are being showered upon you."
– Baha’i Writings
Lord of the springtime, Father of flower, field and fruit,
Smile on us in these earnest days when the work is heavy and the
toil warisome
Lift up our hearts, O God,
To the things worthwhile – sunshine and night, the dripping rain,
The song of the birds, books and music, and the voices of our
friends.
Lift up our hearts to these this night and grant us Thy peace.
W.E. B. DuBois
“If we are not happy and joyous at this season, for what other
season shall we wait and for what other time shall we look?
– Baha’i Writings
In the depths of your hopes
and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming
beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is
hidden the gate to eternity.
Kahlil Gibran
"If we had no winter,
the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of
adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
Anne Bradstreet
An optimist is the human
personification of spring.
Susan J.
Bissonette
The divine religions are like the progression of the seasons of
the year. When the earth becomes dead and desolate and because of frost and
cold no trace of vanished spring remains, the springtime dawns again and
clothes everything with a new garment of life.
– Baha’i Writings
Quotes from Rumi on Renewal:
· The soul has been given its own ears to hear things the mind does
not understand.”
· Let the beauty we love be what we do
· Be with those who help your being .
· You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a
drop.
· Respond to every call that excites your spirit.
· Your task is not to seek love but merely to find all the barriers
within yourself that you have built against it.
· When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in
you, a joy.
Let them at all times refresh and restore themselves with the
dews of heavenly grace, and with the breaths of the Holy Spirit revive and
renew themselves from moment to moment.
– Baha’i Writings
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that
which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is
decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
– Corinthians
4:16
The divine Prophets are as the coming of spring, each renewing
and quickening the teachings of the Prophet Who came before Him. Just as all
seasons of spring are essentially one as to newness of life, vernal showers and
beauty, so the essence of the mission and accomplishment of all the Prophets is
one and the same. Now the people of religion have lost sight of the essential
reality of the spiritual springtime. They have held tenaciously to ancestral
forms and imitations, and because of this there is variance, strife and
altercation among them. Therefore, we must now abandon these imitations and
seek the foundation of the divine teachings; and inasmuch as the foundation is
one reality, the divergent religionists must agree in it so that love and unity
will be established among all people and denominations.
– Baha’i Writing
From Marianne
Williamson:
1. Recognize your Creator. Think on this: There is a supreme power in the universe that is
bigger and more powerful than your small mortal self. This step makes you
humble.
2. Seek opportunities to put more love into the
world. Strive to be a vessel of love, to fill the
world with more compassion and kindness. This step makes you loving and
lovable.
3. Set aside time each day to spend in spiritual
reflection and contemplation. Dwell in
the presence of the divine: Your path may be to pray, meditate, read spiritual
material, take a long walk through nature—or all of the above—but an optimum
practice includes both morning and evening sessions of at least 20 minutes
each. This step makes you strong.
4. Become more accepting. With every interaction, surrender any tendency to judge another
person. Pray for a more accepting heart. This step makes you gracious.
5. Forgive anyone you have not forgiven.
Whenever you withhold forgiveness, you keep yourself bound to your own feelings
of guilt. This step makes you kind.
6. Recognize your mistakes. Admit where you yourself have been wrong, and be willing to be
corrected. This step makes you responsible.
7. Try to see the good in others. When you're tempted to judge someone, make an effort to see
their goodness. Your willingness to look for the best in people will
subconsciously bring it forth. This step makes you positive.
8. Take stock of your thoughts and behavior. Each night ask yourself,
when were you negative when you could have been positive? When did you withhold
love when you might have given it? When did you play a neurotic game instead of
behaving in a powerful way? Use this process to self-correct. This step
makes you grow.
9. Bless the world.
Pray not just that your own life will be blessed but that blessings be poured
on everyone. This step makes you beautiful.
10. Use each interaction to be the best, most
powerful version of yourself. Try to rise to the occasion. Be the most wonderful expression of you
that you're capable of. This step makes you a conduit of God's love.
Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring
your own soul.
– Alice Walker
"Renew
thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever
again."
Henry David Thoreau
…, just as the solar cycle has its four seasons the cycle of the
Sun of Reality has its distinct and successive periods. Each brings its vernal
season or springtime. When the Sun of Reality returns to quicken the world of
mankind a divine bounty descends from the heaven of generosity. The realm of
thoughts and ideals is set in motion and blessed with new life. Minds are
developed, hopes brighten, aspirations become spiritual, the virtues of the
human world appear with freshened power of growth and the image and likeness of
God become visible in man. It is the springtime of the inner world.
After the spring, summer comes with its fullness and fruitage spiritual;
autumn follows with its withering winds which chill the soul; the Sun seems to
be going away until at last the mantle of winter overspreads and only faint
traces of the effulgence of that divine Sun remain. Just as the surface of the
material world becomes dark and dreary, the soil dormant, the trees naked and
bare and no beauty or freshness remain to cheer the darkness and desolation, so
the winter of the spiritual cycle witnesses the death and disappearance of
divine growth and extinction of the light and love of God. But again the cycle
begins and a new springtime appears. In it the former springtime has returned,
the world is resuscitated, illumined and attains spirituality; religion is
renewed and reorganized, hearts are turned to God, the summons of God is heard
and life is again bestowed upon man.
– Baha’i Writings
Try
dying every day to your old self . . . So that you emerge renewed and young
again as the tired mind sheds its load . . .
Kristin Zambucka
Each
morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.
Buddha
...There
is no better means of attainment to the spiritual life
Than by continually
beginning again...
Saint Francis de Sales
All the virtues which have been deposited and potential in human
hearts are being revealed from that Reality as flowers and blossoms from divine
gardens. It is a day of joy, a time of happiness, a period of spiritual growth.
I beg of God that this divine spiritual civilization may have the fullest
impression and effect upon you. May you become as growing plants. May the trees
of your hearts bring forth new leaves and variegated blossoms. May ideal fruits
appear from them in order that the world of humanity, which has grown and
developed in material civilization, may be quickened in the bringing forth of
spiritual ideals.
– Baha’i Writings
Finish
every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and
absurdities, no doubt, crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can,
tomorrow is a
new day;
begin it well and serenely,
with too high a spirit to be cumbered
with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Without
nourishing our own souls, we can't nourish the world, for we cannot give what
we do not have. As we attend to our souls, we emanate invisibly and
involuntarily the light we have received.
Marianne Williamson
Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not
withdraw from us. We need hours of aimless wandering or spates of time
sitting on park benches, observing the mysterious world of ants and the canopy
of treetops.
Maya Angelou
True salvation is freedom
from negativity.
~ Ekhart Tolle
The intuitive mind is a
sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a
society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
Albert Einstein
In
the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is
elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Truth,
like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all
that is not gold.
--Leo Tolstoy
Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech,
and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.
– Buddha
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.
Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by
demons, heaven or hell.
– Buddha
O Son of Dust! The wise are they that speak not unless they
obtain a hearing, even as the cup-bearers, who proffer not their cups till they
find a seeker, and the lovers who cry not out from the depths of their heart
until they gaze upon the beauty of their beloved. Wherefore sow the seeds of
wisdom and knowledge in the pure soil of the heart, and keep them hidden, till
the hyacinths of divine wisdom spring from the heart and not from mire and
clay.
– Baha’i Writings
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